rather than pick out individual stocks to trade, it can often be worthwhile to trade the indices themselves, especially in times of high volatility.

for those so inclined, i attach below charts for FTSE and FTSE 250, though one might equally be tempted to trade Dow or S&P, which is significantly broader in its coverage, or even NASDAQ

for ease of reading, i have attached 1 year and 3 month charts in each instance

Ah, I thought your post #4025 implied that you were trading gold.
Looks like GE have boosted the US. Imagine some profit taking may take place Fri pm.

it crossed my mind, but was not brave enough .... cannot work it out at all

I'm not a very long term trader, so I wouldn't have said that was a dangerous statement. It was meant as a comment on the move of the day so far, and that was firmly up. The Dow has halved in value over a comparatively short period of time - and with good reason, I hasten to add - however, a bounce has been due, and in my experience of market watching, and I know it's a cliche, trends are friendly. That was all.

Not sure what has happened to Signalwatch but he did see 7500 as the lid

have got the answer .... you go to the mnew site, set up an i/d etc and then download the fee software .... have done part of the exercise but need to complete on my office system when i get ther ... will report back in due course

Dow is at a fairly critical stage ..... if 7100 can now be held with some conviction, there could be a fair bit more puff left

Nice one cynic,in the mean time may actually have to do my own technical analysis,nightmare!

why not really frighten yourself and trade gold .... it's been all over the shop today and also for the last few days

signalwatch
new version is good, though preferred the old simple page.
this version gives you a spiel on video

Cynic I have some nasty scars from gold that have been etched into the sub conscious in a similar way to a bottle of Sherry aged 16 which had similar consequences!It makes trading currencies appear safe!

interesting decisions to make in london before market close, rather depending on whether you think Dow will hold above 7100 ...... certainly threatening not to at the moment

I can't believe gold has held up as well as it has ($920-930 range). I read that 2nd hand/scrap gold has swamped the market further weakening bullion, but it still seems to resist dropping further.

that and the price of gold is certainly crucifying the retail trade in dubai ..... strange that both gold and crude are strengthening

Opec meeting cynic this w/e despite inventory build,gold's an etf bubble until the dollar implodes

if $ implodes, then gold will go up at least in $ terms

as "stinky digit" observed, crude is on the move upwards once more ..... as a result gold is reversing as one would expect, but which has not been happening of late .... markets overall are interesting and i have closed all my short positions as i think they are too dangerous ..... there could easily be a stampede north if a bear squeeze gets under way

The tricky bit is now deciding whether we have reached the bottom or not, imo.
I have preserved some cash & should now probably be buying in smalll quantities, but having read in the FT that the oil cartels are not going to succeed in pushing up the crude price by much, the world is awash with scrap/2nd hand gold, unemployment is increasing alarmingly & all major currencies are under pressure with a currency war anticipated, I can't decide what to do!!! As the equity market is supposed to pick up 6 months before the economy, then perhaps it doesn't matter what the latest headline is.
Shares Mag points out that the traditional defensive stocks (Utilities, tobacco & armaments) are now losing favour, so presumably investors are now looking for the next 'hot' sector at the start of the recovery?

Harry ..... don't forget that it is sentiment that drives markets, not logic or common sense, and that the markets look at least 6 months ahead ...... there is also a fairly strong likelihood that at least a "robust spike" is picking up a head of steam, though that in itself implies a short life with a sharp reversal thereafter.

you haven't a hope in hell of picking the bottom of the market, so you'll just have to make your own judgment ..... it is not impossible, though i would guess as very unlikely, that the markets will just roar away and keep doing so, as they did last time around (or was it the time before that?)

Reading investors comments and other opinions, nearly all are calling this rally a bear market rally with one more low in the low 3000s before any meaningful recovery. I agree, this is also the view I hold, but the market rarely does what everyone is expecting. When a new bull market begins most private investors have historically been caught out, and missed the early stages of recovery.

Maybe this is the start of a new bull market, I doubt it but nobody knows.

I'm a bit disappointed with dow had hoped it would rally to 7500 to close for a nice post close short on several indices but was not to be, nice day on the beach though!

March 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell for the first time in five days as a rally in financial companies was snuffed out by concern over rising credit-card defaults, while SanDisk Corp. led a slump in technology shares. Treasuries dropped and the dollar weakened against the euro, while copper and oil advanced.

American Express Co. decreased 3.3 percent, erasing an 8.1 percent gain, after reporting higher delinquency rates for February. SanDisk, the biggest maker of flash memory cards, tumbled 11 percent as Bank of America Corp. advised selling the shares. Stocks rallied earlier after the Group of 20 vowed to clean up toxic assets, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the recession may end this year and U.K. bank Barclays Plc reported a strong start to 2009.

A relief rally cannot continue until investors have greater faith that the problems in the economy have been worked out, said William Dwyer, senior investment officer at Baltimore-based MTB Investment Advisors Inc., which oversees $24 billion.

There is some fear that maybe the rally isnt for real and investors want to make sure that it doesnt roll over and break to new lows, said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Cleveland-based Key Private Bank, which manages $22 billion. The AmEx news may have provided the excuse for rethinking how much investors should jump in.

One for the Index boys.....

oops didnt work.